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I'm going to post 3 or four of these in my booth from now on. I don't know. This might be too subtle. I think they may need to illuminated and flashing on and off. maybe I could add sound ...

aka Ye Olde Village Art Fair

May 16

Manhattan, New York

Located in the heart of Greenwich Village (West Village) 
on the Bedford, Barrow and Commerce Streets

100 Artists 

Deadline: May 15

• This show draws over 15,000 attendees.  
• We have wonderful, professional fine artist and fine crafters, plus a gourmet food section.  
• In addition we have live music.  The food and music sections are separate from the exhibitors so that people can have a wonderful meal and dance, and is far enough away to only enhance the shopping experience and adds a wonderful background ambiance.  
• This is the first year we are listing the show nationally to encourage exhibitors from outside the tri-state area to participate.

5 minutes & 53 seconds

The keynote speaker at the Arts Festival Conference (sponsored by Zapp) in Portland, OR, August 28, 2014, was Russell Taylor Willis, President and CEO of National Arts Strategies. She spoke of the impact of technology on the arts and how knowledge workers can use it to expand the role of the arts in society.

Please vote today for the Best Posts on AFI in March and choose a member to receive the Red Dot on their photo.

1. John Leben - 3/4/2015 "Lake Wales: 3rd of 5 Florida Art Fairs for this Midwest Artist"
2. S. Brian Berken - 3/11/2015 "The Way It Were"
3. Sandy Walker 3/18/2015 "What's This Jury Panel all About?"
4. Barrie Lynn Bryant - 3/30/2015 "Review: Fairhope Arts & Crafts...& Pussy Willow!"

And then give a big thanks to one of these people who have also been generous with their help this month:

1. Camryn Forrest
2. Cindy Welch
3. Tina Towell
4. Roxanne Coffelt
5. Barbara Bloom

Deadline: March 15 6 pm ET

CLICK HERE TO VOTE

November 20-22
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Benton Convention Center
Patron's Preview: Fri. 5:30pm-9pm
Sat. 10am-6pm; Sun. 12pm-5pm

Presented by Piedmont Craftsmen
125 exhibiting artists
Deadline: April 16   

Application Fee: $35; Booth Fee: starting $600

Piedmont Craftsmen is a Juried FineCraft Guild that has represented and supported Fine Craft Artists since 1963.  Artists jurying for Piedmont Craftsmen's Fair are applying for lifetime membership in a Guild with a year-round gallery in downtown Winston-Salem, and strong Exhibition and Education programs. 

Artists accepted to the show are evaluated by a standards committee for invitation as Exhibiting Members.

• Piedmont Craftsmen's Fair accepts exhibitors in all the major fine craft media, including clay, fiber, jewelry, metals, glass, mixed media (2-D and 3-D), fine printmaking, photography, and wood.
• The event is promoted to and attended by an audience that includes Charlotte and Raleigh as well as North Carolina's Piedmont Triad. Fair visitors also come from South Carolina and southern Virginia.
• Promotions include print advertising (newspaper and glossy monthlies), radio, direct mail, billboards, social media; television, national, statewide and regional news releases to print and broadcast media; valued at roughly $80,000.
• Artist Amenities: booth sitting, Saturday night craftsmen's social event, artist rates at several hotels, loading dock managers, 2 Preview Party guest passes.
  
  

Booth fee:  starts at $600 for a 10x10 booth, includes pipe and drape and electricity.  50% due with contract, balance by September 19. 

• Reported Exhibitor sales at the Fair over the past several years have averaged over $3,200.
• Piedmont Craftsmen has a large and loyal customer base for our annual Fair and our Year-Round Gallery in the heart of Winston-Salem's Downtown Arts District.
• The Gallery/Shop, which only sells work by juried exhibiting members, welcomed more than 17,000 visitors in 2013, and has averaged more than $200,000 in sales over the past four years.
• Piedmont Craftsmen has an active community education program, including long and short term artist residencies in the public schools, and partnerships with Habitat for Humanity and the Sawtooth School for Visual Art. 
  
  

Our Fair Exhibitors and members say:

• Good treatment of the artists...helpful set up and breakdown...You all do a fantastic job...
• The annual Fair is outstanding and could be in any large city anywhere in the world...
• They will do whatever they can to help you as an artist because they are there to help artists...one of the top galleries in the southeast...
• they get my "Good Housekeeping seal of approval for craft artists...
• a history of attracting top craftsmen who continue evolving...
  
  

More information at www.piedmontcraftsmen.org 

Application at zapplication.org 

Email: members@piedmontcraftsmen.org 

Phone: (336)725-1516 

Fair and membership Manager: Deb Britton 

Photo from the Sedona Arts Festival. 

Just had to share this photo with you. Do you think she should use Pro Panels instead?

This was a first time show for me as it was suggested by an artist friend. I thought I'd try it out as the drive was only a day away and nothing else was scheduled during that interval. So, first the facts:

Show Hours and Dates: Las Cruces Arts Fair, Las Cruces, NM. March 13 - 15. 5-8 Fri, 10-5 Sat & Sun

Logistics:

The show is set up inside the the Las Cruces Convention Center which is not far off of the I-10 corridor and many hotels. As I drove up to the overhead doors I was greeted by several enthusiastic volunteers who were there to help me unload. When I say "help" I mean they jumped right up into my vehicle and started to unload it onto push carts and were ready to get my stuff out as quickly as possible. I have never had such an experience before! This was above and beyond. You can unload either the Thursday evening prior to the show or early Friday. I opted for Friday morning and had plenty of time to get ready before opening hours of 5-8 PM.

Amenities:

LOTS of water,  snacks and volunteer booth sitters for the occasional break. Additionally, the show hosted a great dinner on Friday night as part of the awards ceremony.

Storage, Booth Space, Load-In/Out:

As this is a relatively small convention center booths pretty well filled the place so there was no space for storage, additionally, some booths were in the entry corridor outside the main hall. Somewhere along the line I thought I had heard not to get a booth in the entry corridor as you might get lost out there. I don't think that was the case as the artists in the entry were the first and last ones seen as people entered the event. As this was an indoor show lights were a must electricity was included in the booth fee.

Demographics/Buying Trends:

This was a slow show. People that had done the show the previous year said it was pretty good. It occured to me that this was one of the "You should'a been here last year!" experiences. The wood artist across from me was selling some reasonably priced pieces otherwise around me nothing much was moving. Even the smalls that I had were not moving very quickly. One sculpture from Cuba (NM) almost sold out his entire booth. I think he had one or two pieces left. He said that he wasn't terribly prepared for the show, had left stuff at home, etc. Maybe that should be his practice going forward!

Quality/Range of Art:

This was a very tight show in terms of quality. Maybe one or two booths were not up to the same level as the rest but those were the exceptions.

Food:

I was told by the director that they learned it was a good idea to keep the patrons there with food, drinks and places to sit. Good thing. The convention complex had a nice food bar set up with reasonably priced items that were really very good, some drinks, and a cash bar. It seemed to help as people stayed around for a long time during the day. Friday night they had entertainers from El Paso, TX that played some lively music, I don't know what the booths next to them thought but they sounded good.

Reflections:

This was a first time show for me and although it didn't go so well this year, based on the ease of doing the show, the fact that it was indoor, great volunteers, good quality art, I think I'd give it another go.

Okay, now for the Dave Piper star rating! I'd give this show ✩✩✩✩ out of 5 and that is because of the nice job of logistics by the volunteers, great amenities, booth sitting, etc. As far as the buying goes, I'd give it half ✩. This was the third show I had done this year and all three were stinkers! Next up will be Bayou City Arts in Memorial Park.

June 6 & 7

Community Center on Pacific Coast Highway
 presented by the non-profit Arts Group of Hermosa Beach

10 am to 5 pm 

up to 100 Artists  

Deadline: April 12

 

Application Fee:  $5

Booth Fee:          $175, $225 for corner space

 

We are proud to announce the Hermosa Beach Fine Arts Festival (formerly the HB Artwalk) is entering its 12th year and we are putting the final touches on what is now a two day art festival.  

 

Featuring the work of nearly 100 top local artists, the festival has come a long way since our first event in 2003. To accommodate the growth, we moved our location in 2008 from the sidewalks of upper Pier Avenue to the beautiful lawn of the Community Center at Pacific Coast Highway and Pier Avenue. 

 

This move has been a big success and allows for not only much larger booth spaces for our artists, but ample room for more food, music, and mingling, with plenty of parking, plus unparalleled exposure to the traffic on PCH.

Hermosa Beach, one of California's most beautiful beach communities, is a hot spot for tourists and locals during the summer months. Hermosa Beach is the ideal art festival venue for visual art exhibitions and musical performances.

We hope you will join us on the lawn at the Community Center in June.

 

Apply:  http://www.hbartwalk.com/images/2015/Artist%20signup15.pdf

Website:  www.hbartwalk.com 

Contact:  Ken Klade, kenklade@aol.com

Phone:  (310)379-4229

Has anyone ever applied to be a featured artist by Artsy Shark?  Couldn't find any bad press about them, but wondering if it's safe to use a credit card for the jury fee and refer them to our web site.  Can't be too careful these days!!

MANDARIN ART FESTIVAL is a small show located in an affluent Jacksonville, Florida neighborhood, and it may be one of Florida's best kept secrets. This year 90 artists will exhibit on the grounds of MANDARIN COMMUNITY CLUB, which is the historical Freedom School site built by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1872. The St. Johns River can be seen behind the homes across the street, Mandarin Rd., in front of the school. 

Five years ago the all volunteer committee of Mandarin Art Festival decided to seek outside help to run their event. The show had been held every Easter weekend since 1968 and it had always been independently run by a local group. But the committee needed a break and thus decided if they were going to keep their show running, they'd need to contract their show with someone who knows how to run an art show. Welcome aboard, Howard Alan.

We'd been dong the Mandarin show for several years when the committee informed everyone of the change. We'd never done a Howard Alan event and decided that the new Mandarin show would not be the time to start doing them. The reasons we haven't done a Howard Alan show is that his shows don't have awards, they cost a little more, and setup is very early morning the first day of the show. Seems a number of the regular artists doing Mandarin decided also that they would quit the show despite there not being any other event held in the area on Easter weekend to fill the void. For folks like us who road trip for six to eight weeks, we'd just have an empty weekend. We'd just lay low.

I have no idea what happened with the show during the Howard Alan years so I cannot report about that. But last year the Mandarin Art Festival committee reclaimed their show for themselves. Good day, Howard Alan.

Thank you, Susie Scott, Mandarin Art Festival Show Director.

A quick call to Mandarin last year revealed that although the volunteer committee was once again running the show, they had not yet brought back the awards. All that's changed for 2015. Their awards aren't quite what they were before the Howard Alan years, but they are significant enough.

Set up today was a breeze. It was fun seeing some friends I hadn't seen since we last did the show. One of them told me he had been doing it through the Howard Alan years, too. The committee had lunch for us, plenty of deli sandwiches to go around with chips and pickles and cookies and tea. Sweet tea for me, or course. I had a delicious veggie wrap and my wife had egg salad on croissant. Delightful, really. We were set up in about two hours. Things just moved along nicely. It got a little warm today, but a cold front is moving through tomorrow afternoon and I'm looking forward to that. Easter sunday will be mid-70's and dry.

I'll post a review of the show later next week once we get to Chattanooga. WOOHOO!

I notice how show organizers promote how they keep similar styles or categories apart. I spoke to one show organizer last week and she said that the artists don't want to be adjacent to similar "competitor" artists.  I just don't get that. I may not be well versed in art shows but I do have over 30 years of business and marketing experience. This separation is harmful to sales. 

Here's why:

When people shop - they have some idea of what they want.  Jewelry, pottery, wood, paintings, etc. There is the occasional impulse buy but when you boost the quality and price to a professional or juried level that factor diminishes. When a show has 150 - 200 booths, the shopper has to search out their "category" preference and it is unlikely they will find all that fit. 

In reality a sale comes down to two things - whether they like the product or not and the price. Believe it or not, cheapest does not always win and sometimes a price too low can kill a sale. Sorry, I digressed.  Essentially, you think you have enough variety but when you step back your prices are consistent (within a range) and your work has your style.

Take away the isolation aspect and place another artist (same category) adjacent to you and now you have a true difference. What really happens - you now have a potential (even likely) buyer who is no longer in a "yes" or "no" situation; and placed them in an "either" "or" situation. It is now more likely that at least one of you will make a sale.

This is why more new car dealerships carry more than one line of cars.  The red versus blue is just not enough and the lowest price isn't the real issue, it is what they believe is value.

Tell me if you (pardon the pun) buy into this strategy or not, and if not, why not.

I have a display question for fiber artists.  I hand dye silk (Shibori) and have just decided to move to using pro panels with waterfall racks.  Initially i had thought of putting each piece on a hanger, and hanging them on the waterfall racks so they cascade down neatly revealing the pattern in the silk but my business partner suggested instead to just hang the silk from the waterfall hooks in loose knots, allowing me to place 2-3 waterfall racks per panel.  I should have taken pictures of my playing with the displays in my basement, but i did not, so these are pictures on the internet of examples of the ideas... hangers, vs loosely knot hung.  Which appeals more?  

I was ecstatic to get juried into Winter Park this year for the first time. I wasn't sure what to expect but was certainly aware of the reputation that precedes this show. 

I made the trek from Tennessee on Wednesday, spent the night in Gainesville, Florida then continued onto Winter Park on Thursday for load in.  I had looked at the map of the show beforehand so knew exactly where my booth placement  in Central Park was thanks to Google Street Maps. I was directly between two massive cedar trees. Shade for the entire weekend! 

Load in was fairly straightforward. Park on Park Avenue in front of Central Park and dolly to your space. I'm really happy that I had one of the booths with a sidewalk in front as opposed to a mulch walkway. I unloaded my truck, dollied everything to my space then moved my vehicle to the grass lot on the other side of the railroad tracks. I had all afternoon to set up so it was probably one of the more casual laid back set ups. Normally set up is about 1 hour for me but I took about 4 hours with lunch at a French bistro just off Park Ave. 

Friday was a great day for me. With a forecast of upper 80s for the duration of the show, the buying crowds came early, partially to avoid the heat of the afternoon. There were plenty of bags and going by  and I had a lot of purchases and  positive comments from patrons that they had not seen my work before. The heat of the afternoon took its toll on the crowds as it definitely thinned out mid-afternoon. I did have a burst of activity in the last hour to complete a $2.5K day. The judging came through and I did have a piece selected for judging. At the close of the show on Friday I carried my piece over to the Catholic Church a block away. I saw dozens of other artists carrying/dollying their pieces as well. I was informed that we had to pick up our pieces Saturday between 11:30am - 12:30pm. No worries though, I secured a booth sitter so I could make the run over to the church. 

Saturday promised another beautiful day and once again, the crowds came early and the free SunRail was dropping off customers by the trainload at the festival doorstep. I did see a bit of a different demographic with more families and the kettle corn crowd coming in. Sales did occur once again early in the day and once again late in the afternoon. Another 2K day for me. The music on the lawn in the North Central Park went on for most of the day. It wasn't too loud for me, although I did have a several booth buffer between me and the stage. At the close of the day I walked two blocks over to the Farmer's Market for the artists dinner/awards. I didn't win an award but the dinner was FANTASTIC. Catered by a local company and plenty of libations for us. Congrats to the winners! 

Sunday was basically a repeat of Saturday. Sales early before the heat set in, lots of people although I did have a four hour gap in the middle of the day without a sale. Then, once again, on cue...a flurry of sales in the last hour. That seemed to be the M.O. of the crowd. It was another 2K day for me.  One of the show volunteers came by late in the day and gave load out procedures. Police would open up the street about 6pm for load out. I had my egress already planned out though. Break down, dolly out across the tracks straight to the parking area. I was loaded up and on the road by 5:45, headed to Hollywood Florida for 5 days at the beach! 

Overall, I could not have asked for a better show. Winter Park lived up to the hype for me! Sales! Sales! Sales! A great volunteer staff and a beautiful city! I'm already looking forward to applying to the 2016 show and fingers crossed, that I get juried in!